ICYMI: Rubio's Victory Remarks

Appearing with his wife Jeannette and their four children, Marco Rubio delivered the following remarks upon accepting the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate to a crowded ballroom in Miami:

Marco Rubio's Remarks As Delivered In Miami:

Rubio: Well, welcome to the night they said would never come. Welcome to a moment they said was not possible.

Eighteen months ago, we were confronted with an extraordinary challenge, and many discouraged us from doing it. But tonight, here in Florida, we've learned that anything is possible in this great nation of ours -- even a candidacy like this one.

I begin by acknowledging and thanking God, through whom all things are possible. It is always important to remember that both the good and bad things come through His hands and for His purpose, and that's something that we should never forget as a people, as a nation, and we will never forget as a family.

I want to thank my wife Jeannette, who over the last 18 months has been extraordinarily supportive in holding our home together while I traveled the state far and wide, six and a half days a week, and my four children for allowing me the opportunity to do this.

In fact, I often joke that early in this campaign, the only people that thought I could win lived in my home, and four of them were under the age of ten. And I am grateful to them, they are an extraordinary blessing in our life.

I'm grateful, too, to my parents who, as a young man, encouraged me to dream, and have made it the mission of their life to open doors for me that were not even existent to them. My parents have lived a selfless life and have sacrificed tremendously for me throughout it, even on this very day, and I am grateful to them. I am hopeful that tonight is the beginning of continuing to affirm that their sacrifices and their hard work were not in vain.

I thank all of you for being a part of this campaign. So many people have supported me from the very beginning of my career in public service and even before. My extended family is here and have been supportive, who still find it hard to believe that people like you would turn out to cheer for me on a night like this. But it's true. We have supporters and I'm grateful to all of you for being with us here today.

And now, for the road ahead: because the campaign that lies ahead is going to be a very clear one here in Florida. Right now the United State of America is headed in the wrong direction. And let's be frank, both parties are to blame. Washington is broken, and the road that it is taking us on is the wrong road.

In Florida, the choice that our people are going to have is very simple. If you like the direction that America is headed, if you think Washington is doing the right things, then there are two other people that are going to be on the ballot, and you should vote for one of them.

If, on the other hand, you are unhappy with the direction that Washington's taking America, if you are unhappy with the road that we are on, then there's only one person running, there's only one campaign in Florida in 2010 that is offering to stand up to that agenda and, in its place, present a very clear alternative. And that's what we've done the last 18 months, and that's what we'll do these next 70 days.

I know that in every campaign, they tell you the same thing: "This is the most important election in a generation, the most important election in our lifetime.' This one truly is. This one truly is. For we as a nation and as a people are on the precipice of crossing a line from which we may not be able to return. We are at the point where decisions are being made in Washington, D.C., that may be irreversible for my children and for your children and grandchildren. And that's what this election is about.

More than anything else, it's not a choice between Republicans and Democrats. It's not a choice between liberals and conservatives. This election is nothing less than a referendum on our identity as a people and as a nation. And that's what's at stake these next 70 days.

And for us, as a campaign, the most important thing we must do is offer a compelling vision of the future. Because, let me be clear: I'm not running to be the opposition. I'm not running to be just simply against people. I believe there is a better way to do things, and so do a majority of Floridians and Americans. And here in Florida, through this U.S. Senate campaign, we are going to offer them the opportunity to vote for someone who has clear ideas about how America can once again re-embrace all the things that made us exceptional and unique in the history of the world.

Tonight, I want to be brief in my remarks for a couple of reasons: one, out of respect for your time and all the other people that are running tonight and obviously we're interested in all those fascinating races that are happening throughout Florida; two, because my children are here, and we're starting to get to our limit here.

This morning, I woke up like I do for pretty much the last 18 months to a campaign routine -- a schedule that told me where I needed to be. This morning was a little different. After dropping my children off at school, I went to vote. And that was something I knew I was going to do today, and I kind of took it for granted until I got there.

When I pulled up, I was immediately confronted by six or seven cameras at the same polling precinct that I've been going to for years and standing in line and voting for other people. And then I realized, "You're running for the United States Senate. Your name is on the ballot, and God willing if things go well tonight, you will be the Republican nominee for the United States Senate."

And I realized something else. I realized that I'm just a generation removed from a very different life. My parents grew up in a very different society. We're proud of our heritage, but the place they grew up in was very different from the one I've grown up in.

My parents grew up in a place like almost anywhere else in the world, where what you are going to accomplish in life and how far you can go is decided for you before you are even born. Think about that for a moment. In almost every other country in the world, what you are going to be when you grow up is decided for you by who your parents are, by where you come from, by who you know. It doesn't matter how smart you are, how hard you work, how big your dreams may be. In almost every other society in all of human history, how far you can go in life is not up to you. It's decided for you. And that's the way it still is almost everywhere else on this planet.

Except for one place: the United State of America. A place where anyone from anywhere can accomplish almost anything. A place where it doesn't matter if you weren't born into a connected family. It doesn't matter if you don't run in the right social circles. If you have a good idea and the willingness to work in pursuit of it, you can accomplish anything.

Sadly, I think sometimes those of us that are born in this country take that for granted. And we believe that that's the way it is almost everywhere else in the world. It's not. Now, maybe that's a lesson I learned young because I've been raised in a community of exiles, of men and women who know it is possible to lose your country, and everything you hold dear, a people who understand that this place, this nation is unique, that there has never been anything like this in the history of all of mankind. And even now, even today, with the challenges that we face, there is still no place on Earth that you would rather be, no country on Earth that you would trade places with.

But what we must always remember is that this exceptional country of ours -- it didn't happen by accident. This extraordinary country we have didn't just happen "because.' It happened because the people who were here before us did what they had to do to ensure that their children inherited a better life. This country's exceptional and extraordinary because the men and women who stood where we stand now confronted the great challenges of their time, and in so doing, ensured that the next generation was better off.

Over the last 230-some-odd years, we as Americans have built a society unlike any other in all of human history. And now it's our turn to keep it that way because that is the issue of our time.

The choice before us is very simple. What kind of country do we want these children and your children to inherit? A place like everywhere else? Or a place like the one that was left to us? Are we prepared to go down in history as the next generation of Americans who did what we had to do to ensure that this exceptional place remained that way? Or will we go down as the first Americans ever to leave our children worse off?

I think I know which choice Americans and Floridians are about to make. You see, every single one of us here today can track our lineage back to somebody who came from somewhere else. Now, maybe it was just a generation ago, maybe it was four generations ago, but every single one of us descended from somebody who could not be what God meant them to be in the nation of their birth. And so, they came here to the only place in human history where anyone from anywhere can accomplish anything, and the great cause of our time is to preserve this nation for the next generation in that way. And that's what this election is about.

If we stay on the road that Washington has us on right now, we will lose our exceptionalism. We will lose the things that make us special and unique.

This is not about who's in charge from a personality stand-point. This is nothing personal against anyone in politics. But the people that are running this country in Washington, D.C., are wrong. The road they have us on is the wrong road.

Our economy is not creating jobs. You know why? Because politicians don't create jobs. Jobs are created by everyday people from all walks of life, who start a business or expand an existing business. And the job of government is to make it easier for them to do that, not harder. But that's not what they're doing.

Our government cannot continue to spend more money than it takes in, or soon we will face a Greece-like day of reckoning. And the world is a safer place when our country, the United States of America, is the strongest country in the world.

But the road that Washington has us on right now will rob us of these things. And so, I end where I began this speech--by telling you what the choice is here in Florida. If you like the direction that Washington is taking us, I am not your candidate. I am running for the U.S. Senate because I think that Washington is wrong. I want to stand up to what they're offering, and I want to offer in its place a clear alternative -- a clear alternative that will leave my children and yours with what they deserve, what they deserve to have inherited, what you and I inherited, what every American before them has inherited, and what we will make sure the next generation of America inherits: the single greatest society in all of human history.

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